It's a parade!

My job at the theatre was empty for more than a year before I arrived.  Maybe a year and a half.  The immediate former General Manager (GM) had been a long time employee, had some health problems which affected her job, and she stayed far longer than she was able to do the job.  Then they hired a guy last spring who lasted less than a month.  Seriously, 28 days give or take a day.  Rumor (from people who were there) has it that he fell asleep in a meeting.  His own department meeting.  One he was leading.  Sometimes it is hard to know if the bar is low or high for me.  One day, after a particularly bizarre day, I asked if anyone else had applied for this job or if I was the only sucker.  But I digress.

What I do know is that my colleague, M, had shouldered a load far  greater than any one person should – and for too long.  I can relate to that, so once I got into the job, and figured out the lay of the land in a beginning sort of way, my first priority was to make sure M knew that she had a team now and that there was someone who had her back.

Obviously, that’s a message better sent in deed than in word and it’s been high on my list since starting.

Now fast forward to just a couple of weeks ago.  M’s mom had a fall and as a result – or in hindsight, maybe because of it – they found she had some serious heart issues.  All of this brought me right back to when my mom had open heart surgery.  There is nothing scarier.  For those of us who are close to our moms and whose mother’s were just about the strongest influence in our lives… well, terrifying comes to mind.  But you do what you have to do to go forward, through the prep of waiting, through the surgery itself and the 12 year old residents (not really but they sure looked young) operating on your loved one, through the fire alarm that went off while my mother was in surgery – and yes this really happened.   Through it all to the other side where I was lucky enough to have my mom come out safely and still with us to this day. 

So it is all of this baggage that comes flooding back to me as M, her mom and her sisters prepare for and go through the first of two surgeries.  The good news is that a few days ago, her mom made it through the first surgery well.  Today they got some news that seriously complicates the treatment plan and needless to say, it was a shocker to M.

First, we went for a walk, just so she could get out of the office.  On the way back, she told me she needed a vacation.  No, she said, what I really need is a parade.

Well you don’t need to tell me twice.  I can’t help her momma and it feels so useless “just” to be supportive and consoling… but a parade, that’s something I could do.  I work in a theatre, after all, this should be something I could pull off.

So I emailed the staff at about 1:30 or 2 pm and said that M was having a bad day and she wanted a parade.  I said we would meet at 2:55 to plan and commence parading at 3 pm.  The props master was the first to reply.  He said he had some balloons and a pink lei.  I asked him if he could find a tambourine and anything else that might be useful.  I asked the Education Director if I could dig around in her materials and she said of course.  So armed with some beads, masks, a red Christmas garland or  two, some pipe cleaners and popsicle sticks and colored paper we made a parade.  We made signs, little flags and festooned ourselves.  The props guy outdid himself with a bag of New Year’s eve type noisemakers and we were off.  There must have been 15 people.  I know we could not have looked like much.  We were full of good intentions if a little shy on quality decorations and it turns out that we tipped ourselves off by making too much noise before even leaving the conference room and parading the 25 feet to M’s desk, but it didn’t really matter.  By the time we got there, she was in tears.  The good kind.  The kind that means you just found out that all the people you work with really do care.  The kind that means when it comes to your Momma, everyone gets it and everyone wants to help.  I know that M was appreciative, I could see it in her eyes. 

Later, when she thanked me, I told her that it had made all of us feel good to make her feel better, if only for a little while.  But beware, I told her, because when you tell me that you need a parade, you just never know when it will arrive.

That’s where I work.  A little funky sometimes.  A little dysfunctional others.  But when you need a parade, we’re right there to make it happen.

Today I had the pleasure of attending a Philadelphia Orchestra concert. I haven’t done that in years.  My  mom and I were guests of an old, old, friend who is married to the guest conductor in town for two weekends of concerts. It was a pleasure to sit in the Verizon Concert Hall at the Kimmel Center and enjoy the Philadelphia Orchestra and its classic “Philadelphia Sound.”  It got me thinking. First of all, it reminded me how much I like orchestral music and missed attending concerts.  I must give the New World Symphony in Miami Beach its due, for their affordable concerts and outdoor wallcasts made the orchestra very accessible and easy to engage with. But back to Philadelphia… I started to wonder, just what is the “Philadelphia Sound?”

I asked Barbara, our host, if she could hear the difference among orchestras.  I referenced the famed Philadelphia Sound – and she said she definitely could hear the differences.  I asked because I think I can hear the lush sound of the orchestra, but am not sure I could differentiate the Philly orchestra from anywhere else.  But Barbara assured me that there is indeed a difference.  So what is it? 

With but a little research I came up with two components.  First, somewhere between conductors Leopold Stokowski and Eugene Ormandy a huge emphasis was put on the string section -- From size alone to emphasis on free bowing and a loose and informal but passionate approach to the music.  Then there’s the notion that it was the lack of good acoustics in the famed Academy of Music, the original home of the orchestra, that encouraged orchestra members to dig into their instruments in order to produce a sound that would reach the audience members.  Whatever brought it about, the rich, often described as voluptuous sound of the Philadelphia Orchestra is more than pleasing to these ears.

Once I stopped focusing on the sound and just let it wash over me, I started looking more closely at the musicians themselves.  They were seated in a way I have never seen before.  If you’re looking at the orchestra, first violins were on the left, then cellos, then violas and finally the second violins were on the far right.  Huh.  Did the conductor do that or is that how the orchestra sits now.  The conductor.  It seems that this is how orchestras used to sit in the 19^th century.  Which brings us back to Stokowski.  It seems that he might have been one of the first, in Philadelphia anyway, to change the seating for the more conventional arrangement we are more used to today.  He preferred it for his recordings of which he was a pioneer.  Cool.  Very cool.

The Orchestra's first recordings were made in Camden, New Jersey, in 1917, when Leopold Stokowski conducted performances of two of Brahms's Hungarian Dances for the Victor Talking Machine Company. The historic first electrical recordings were also made in Camden, in April 1925, beginning with Saint-Saëns' Danse Macabre. Then, in 1926, Victor began recording the Orchestra in the Academy of Music. Stokowski led them in experimental long-playing, high-fidelity, and even stereophonic sessions in the early 1930s for RCA Victor and Bell Laboratories. They recorded the soundtrack for Walt Disney's Fantasia in multi-track stereophonic sound in 1939-40.

My dad had a recording, a 78 rpm, I think, on which you could hear Stokowski singing along while he conducted. I wonder what happened to that record?

I credit my parents for my love of classical music, or at least my exposure to it.  I was lucky enough to grow up during the Ormandy years.  During high school, we were offered free tickets to the Friday afternoon concerts.  We climbed to the very top of the Academy, four floors up to the amphitheatre. There we were witness, mostly unbeknownst to us, to some of the best musicians and music ever to grace the orchestral stage.  Today reminded me of all of that and more.  So thank you Barbara and Gloria.  Thank you mom and dad and Girls’ High.  Thank you Philadelphia Orchestra and your signature Philadelphia Sound.  It’s one more reason to be happy to be back in Philadelphia.